What are job aggregators and how can they help SMEs?

If you go looking for jobs online, there’s a fair chance you’ll find a job aggregator. But what exactly are job aggregators, and how can business owners use them?

Job aggregators essentially work like Google – they provide listings of available jobs when a user enters specific keywords.

These listings, when clicked, will send you to the end site of the mentioned job listing, instead of submitting via the job aggregator.

As well as aggregators, job boards can be found online, through which candidates can submit resumes and cover letters.

Raife Watson, the CEO of Adzuna Australia, an Australian job aggregator, tells My Business that the reason aggregators don’t take resume and cover letter submissions themselves is employer branding.

“They [potential employees] can actually begin their journey really on that end site, and register with [the employer], understand what their brand's about,” he says.

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“That's the key difference between [job aggregators] and job boards.”

Raife suggests SMEs are at a disadvantage if they advertise openings only through job boards.

“As more advertisers put ads on [job boards], [SME] ads start disappearing, but a lot of these big companies ... a week later, they'll re-post [their ad] or refresh it so it goes up to the top of the rankings,” he says.

Job boards also typically incur a flat fee: if a job is filled before the end of its paid duration and is delisted, that money is essentially wasted.

As such, SMEs may not have the budget to keep up with bigger businesses for relisting on job boards.

However, most job aggregators operate on a pay-per-click model: the initial posting is free and employers can attribute a budget to the listing to be promoted. Each click uses a bit of the budget, but only after the click takes place.

“[Pay-per-click] is much more in keeping for what advertisers need,” Raife says.

“They don't have to pay to put their ad on our site, but if they want more volume, more candidates, then they can pay a cost per click. But they could get those clicks in five days if they need, or if the candidate's driven through [to] their site in five days, then they're pulled off our site.

"They've only had to pay for the five days’ worth of [pay-per-click].”